Considerable attention has been devoted by industry in general to utilizing recently developed high strength plastics, such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK), a short carbon-fiber resin with surface hardness and elongation percentage surpassing quality steel performance modulus, as a substitute for metals, such as steel and aluminium, in various parts and items produced by the aircraft/aerospace industry. While plastics composites have been recognized as utilizable to produce substitutes for metal parts, the manner in which such plastics have been employed has not been such as properly to utilize a potential of such recently developed short carbon fiber resins.
Thus, tubes employed in structural elements for bicycles, airframes and the like, generally have been fabricated by applying a malleable resin impregnated fabric in wires to a mandril or form for shaping. Such a process has been time consuming and has not produced the most effective structural elements which can be made of such short carbon fiber resins.